1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for loading and unloading a truck with cargo, and more particularly to such apparatus that is power operated and mounts on the truck.
2. Description of the Related Art
An over the highway truck commonly has a body with an enclosed box into which cargo being hauled by the vehicle is placed. A doorway is provided, typically at the rear of the box, through which the cargo is loaded and unloaded. The floor of the box is approximately four feet above the ground, therefore some businesses have loading docks that are raised above the ground to match the floor height of trucks.
However, many businesses such as restaurants and small retail stores do not have special loading docks. At these locations, the cargo must be raised into the truck box and lowered therefrom. A fork lift vehicle can be utilized for that purpose, however a fork lift is unavailable at many locations that do not have loading docks. Although ramps can be employed to transfer the cargo to and from the truck, ramps are not easy to use outdoors in bad weather conditions which make the ramp surface slippery.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a different mechanism which is attached to the vehicle to load and unload cargo.